Hi , I was a long ago allmost about to post this at the regular area, but then I tought there must be similar topics allready and I would of made myself feel like and idiot
But hey in here I know here is non so topic, so out of curiosity, at what way you play your games?

Rotation? (if so, how long in each household?)
Just one family?
Premades?
Integrated?
or non above

PS. sorry if this is not allowed, just that I am so curious to find new ways to play

~~~~Call me Ellu , not a biggie, just my username actually is based of some old stupid tv-show~~~

Well, I play the game in a rotation-usually focusing on a particular family for an undefinable amount of time. I don't necessarily like to play pre-mades, as I find making my own stories to be preferable! This is allowed, and don't feel like an idiot for posting this! It's a good question, in MY opinion

I usually play with a mixture of premades and CAS-made sims, in really irregular rotations, so the neighborhood is always desynced despite my efforts. Although lately, I've been wanting to create a neighborhood completely from scratch and see how long it lasts before I get bored.
PS: How is an integrated hood supposed to work? I've heard that term a lot, but I don't know what it means.

I love pre-mades, because I like to destroy their stories and also the idea of them meeting with others pre-mades and the madness happening, I usually play by rotation, but is nowhere near something synced..., I have some problems with the names here in the forum, because my game is in spanish, sometimes I don't know how to call some sims when I tried to tell what's happening in my game...

All custom Sims with maybe 2 that came pre-made with uni. About 30-35 70-some families and a ton of single Sims or college Sims. Loose rotations so everyone ages more or less at the same place. Usually play 1 to 3 days per home.

Right now - Megahood, therefore pre-mades + very few CAS sims (one household right now), strict rotations, 12 or 24 hours long. I would like it to be more integrated, but I'm actually just starting with hood and making things up, so there are no rules for economy yet.

I've always tend to play legacy style with only two families. One family who come from old money, and the other who work hard for their money.(Great! now I'm singing Donna Summer in my head). Still working on my neighborhood, and hope to create the two families.

CAF to create test simmies who then enjoy very hectic but very short lives in the various test hood I have

Or

Rotationally by families in my main hood. Rotations typically last 1 to 3 days, and I try to sync every family to the start of seasons. I currently have 34 families and around 100 sims. Most are either the original founding family members or born in-game. "New blood" tends to arrive in the form of "college loves", but occasionally a sim will wander down-town to find a new partner. Only created two new sims in CAF - and both were to experiment with Warlock's body shapes.

Uni is (now) played as 3 years of two terms, each term being a single day in the main hood. Teens that don't go to uni can have up to two drinks of the elixir depending on their school grades and/or how mean I'm feeling and/or if I remember.

Just changed the life spans (shortened toddler, child and teen slightly, lengthened adult by a week, and drastically reduced elders) so I'll see how that works out.

Vacations are played in "real-time", so a 4-day holiday passes both 4 days of the sim life and 4 days in the hood for the house. If a family is split (elders go for a break), then they get teleported on their return to a spare lot and sit out the days until they are back in sync with the rest of the family. I also have a house-sitter (called Estelle Argent) if I need to leave a house empty but furnished (eg when a family of teens go to Uni)

There's probably more, but I've spent more time modding recently than playing. Thank god for spread-sheets to keep all this info on!

Several families in rotation, each round least an entire sim-season (that is, five days each). I use empty neighborhood templates, so all my sims are created by myself or generated by the game at the spot (i. e. NPCs), no premades.

Same as Rguerra except that my rotation lasts between 1 and 3 days. It's more one-day rotation nowadays. I keep track with the Lot Sync Timer
I play a semi-integrated hood since I use some of the Maxis career. I barely use NPCs instead a playable does the job.
My farming family provides food for the hood. I don't use the delivery services.
Sims buy clothes at the clothing store.
A playable makes the repair(wo)man.
My kids go to a playable school and so on. You get the idea.

Hi , I was a long ago allmost about to post this at the regular area, but then I tought there must be similar topics allready and I would of made myself feel like and idiot
But hey in here I know here is non so topic, so out of curiosity, at what way you play your games?

Rotation? (if so, how long in each household?)
Just one family?
Premades?
Integrated?
or non above

PS. sorry if this is not allowed, just that I am so curious to find new ways to play

Let me see.

Rotation: yes, I keep a list of families in Strange Town, Blue Water Village and Downtown and I play one and then I play another one, usually the next one one the list, but not always. Duration is until I meet a goal, Usually until Teens go to College and then I go to Uni and place the Sims into a house some place on campus.

Every so often when I feel like it I do a rotation involving the College Students using a separate college list, I concentrate on the Greek Houses, one Male and one Female and one Mixed male and female. Duration until one or more Sims graduate then I place those Sims into a household somewhere and I update both lists. Sometimes I switch to one of the other Greek Houses, sometimes I go back to the main families list.

Just one Family: NO! see above for more detail.

Pre-mades: Yes, all of them. I also play with two Ancestor families that I created. Created Two families, one with a Brother and Sister, the other with two brothers and two sisters.

No rotation, too restrictive. I play tons of families, move them between subhoods. No premades, never could stand them except for one time when I played the Brokes. I usually have a plan for the neighborhood, like a BaCC or a medieval BaCC. I have given up on legacies, I just don't have the stamina...

play with rotations. 1 rotation = 3 sim day. It seems to be not so long, and does not bother to nausea (although I have 15 (!) Households (active at this time)). During these 3 days can do a lot of things.
1 family? Well, it's a little bit quick to start bothering! The same person and nothing can come up with a new one until a new show comes ....

I've never played an integrated hood, but Jo told me what it is. I hope I get this right.

Basically, no NPCs or premades. You create every person in the hood and every business is run by a playable. I have no idea how to accomplish such a feat, and frankly, it sounds like a chore to me. I'm sure it's entirely wonderful to those who play, though, because a lot of people do.

I would suggest you pm joandsarah and get her to explain it to you. She does a wonderful job.

Rotation? (if so, how long in each household?)
Just one family?
Premades?
Integrated?
or non above

I do play in strict rotations.
They are quite short (1 Simday in each household) so nothing too much happens in one family while others remain unplayed.
In my game 1 Simday = 1 year, because I tend to micro-manage (although I've learned to let them use their free will, and I also like it... sometimes) so they still get a lot done in very litle time.

College is different though. Semesters last 1 Simday, so 2 Simdays = 1 year henceforth I play 2 Simdays per rotation.
My excuse for this is that during college life seems to be much more intense (oh! those were the days!).

I like having several families but not too many, because I prefer my rotations to be kinda fast.
I also like families to be small, I would be glad if they only had a child or two, although I obligue when they want more than that.

I use empty templates, notownieregen, etc. so I don't get any premades in my custom hoods and even the townie population is quite small. Just a few are enough, I'd rather know them well than having lots of unknown townies wandering.

I also have my own rules to choose aspirations, as well as to set aspiration bonus, etc.
As I said, I tend to micro-manage.

Not really.
Maybe that makes me sound like a bit obsesive... and maybe I am LOL

I like to keep my households in sync.
And since I have a custom lifespan where the first stages are kinda short (1 Simday is a whole year, and they either go to college or become adults when they are 18) it would be very easy that Sim who were born on the same "year" were growing up at very different paces unless I kept a kinda strict rotation.
I guess I could make some little exception here and there and nothing would happen, but there is no point for me.

It's probably because I don't play focusing on a character (or set of characters) but rather in family lineages (I like seeing them grow and have children, and grandchildren and so on).

I've only begun playing my neighborhoods in rotation this year!! I had an old game built on "oooh, that's pretty" downloads, sheer ignorance, and massive neglect for organization and "mod logic". I literally had one folder : Downloads!! I have completely revamped my game over the past month, and I have never been happier with it. Anywho, I play in rotation from Thursday to Thursday. Mostly I am a "family player" you could say, but lately I have a few single sims who haven't woohooed or anything and it's been a RL month! They're just taking it easy, waiting for someone with chemistry so strong, they can't bear to be away from each other (no ACR, btw). Unlike my old gameplay, where my sims would make eye contact, get married and conceive. Slowing down and taking in everything has made me more detail oriented and particular. I'm almost certain these traits will eventually change into obsessive compulsive disorder, or spontaneous combustion, I'll update that later. All in all, I have some pretty simple rules for the pixeleens. Stay at least above red aspiration, unless it is intentional. I like a happy, healthy town. Be kind, don't be an @ss, (but there is always one or two). Take care of your children! Clean your house! I only recently made an "unusual" character in my game. I don't play any supernaturals, Plantsims included. Don't really know why, I'm just not into it. I've tried it, though. I think it would be interesting to mention that I only use build cheats in my game. None of my sims get any extra money. Ever. I'll leave their house halfway built, and they have to work their butt off to finish it. That's how it is. The only cheat I use for my sims is the plastic surgery/change appearance on the SImBlender. The last two sims I made, I rolled for their personality, etc. I prefer this method, and found it's great if you can stop being a complete control freak for five minutes. Which most of us can't be bothered with. I would like to add that with all the beautiful content and super cool mods, I would officially like to dub my game SIms 2 1/2. It's almost there, but we want that to be almost...

I play rotations. Each rotation lasts a season but I often jump around houses so 1-2 days jump around. Especially important when I have toddlers becoming kids so they can start at the school and kids becoming teens unroll from the Primary School and either enroll at the boarding school/homeschool.

I'm not sure how many families I have now. I started with 12 and now the founders grand kids are being born/becoming toddlers/kids.

No pre-mades, no townies except those I have made. I do have BV townies (wish I didn't!) and dormies spawned by Moo's Brainania uni.

Integrated as much as possible. Sims run the town, as few NPC's as possible and items preferably bought at owned shops.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown